The present invention relates to personal communication services, and more particularly to call processing software, methods and equipment providing enhanced notifications of incoming calls and events.
In recent years, telephony equipment has become increasingly sophisticated. Most modern day switching centers actually include, or are coupled to, computing facilities. As a consequence, telephone subscribers have been offered a variety of previously unavailable services. For example, subscribers are commonly offered such services as call waiting, calling line identification display and calling party name display (CLID/CPND), call forwarding, residential voice mail, and distinctive ringing.
More recently, telephone network sophistication has provided subscribers the flexibility of having personal call handling software process incoming calls and originate outgoing calls on behalf of the user. Such features are often referred to as personal communications services (PCS). A configured piece of call handling software making such PCS possible is often referred to as a personal agent. Personal agents are more particularly described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,329,578 and 5,905,774, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Personal agents may, for example, process incoming calls based on a set of rules and information including a calling party""s number; the called number; the time of call; or additional information requested from the caller.
One notable benefit of using a personal agent is the ability to process calls from different calling parties differently. So, for example, personal agents may reject calls from undesirables, forward calls from important callers to private numbers, and the like. Another notable benefit of a personal agent is the ability to locate a called party at several locations in response to an incoming call. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,011,843 and 5,802,160, for example, disclose systems having the facility to signal several possible telephone numbers simultaneously, in response to receiving an incoming call.
Unfortunately, existing personal agents have not made optimal use of some existing call handling features, such as the CLID/CPND facilities, with new call processing features. Similarly, personal agents have not effectively exploited the availability of such features.
For example, conventional personal agents typically fail to properly notify the called party of the identity of an incoming call. So, call notifications originated by the personal agents are typically accompanied by CLID/CPND information associated with the personal agent processor, instead of the CLID/CPND associated with the originating call. Moreover, even when such call notifications are originated by a personal agent, the CLID/CPND information is typically limited to that associated with the incoming call.
Accordingly, improved telephony software, equipment and methods allowing improved personalized telephony services are desirable.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, existing CLID/CPND fields associated with telephony call signals are used to provide a wide variety of notifications. For example, events that are unrelated to incoming calls may be signaled. Similarly, information derived from incoming CLID information in accordance with subscriber preferences may be provided to a destination.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, information including the name or number of the called party and information derived from the CLID/CPND information of the calling party may be provided to a destination. Recipients at the destination may thus easily determine the call""s origin and intended recipient. This is particularly beneficial for calls forwarded to destinations away from the intended call recipient""s usual location.
Conveniently then, existing telephone appliances capable of display of CLID/CPND information may be used to receive and display a wide variety of notifications.
Therefore, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method of processing an incoming call at a processor providing personal communications services to a telephony subscriber, includes receiving an indicator of the incoming call, including incoming call information indicative of a source of the incoming call; forming calling party information at the processor based on the incoming call information and a stored user preference; and originating a signal indicative of the incoming call, including the calling party information directed to a pre-programmed destination, so that an identifier of the call chosen by the subscriber may be displayed at the destination.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a telephony switching center, within a telephone network, is operable to: receive an indicator of an incoming call destined for a subscriber serviced by the switching center, the indicator including incoming call information indicative of a source of the incoming call; form calling party information at the processor based on the incoming call information and a stored user preference; and originate a signal indicative of the incoming call including the calling party information, directed to a pre-programmed destination, so that an identifier of the calling party chosen by the subscriber may be displayed at the destination.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable medium stores computer executable instructions, that when loaded at a processor providing personal communications services to a telephony subscriber, adapt this processor to receive an indicator of the incoming call, including incoming call information indicative of a source of the incoming call; form calling party information at the processor based on the incoming call information and a stored user preference; and originate a signal indicative of the incoming, including the calling party information directed to a pre-programmed destination, so that an identifier of the calling party chosen by the subscriber may be displayed at the destination.
In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, a method of providing an indicator of a trigger event, unrelated to receipt of a current call for the subscriber at a processor providing personal communications services to a telephony subscriber, includes originating a signal including information identifying the event to a pre-programmed destination so that the information identifying the event may be displayed at a calling line display at a telephone appliance associated with the pre-programmed destination.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.